GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 27 



and all that belonged to it seemed to be ours as long 

 as we chose to stay in it. Whose was the furniture, 

 or who provided the entertainment, we did not 

 know, and we found, when we went away, there was 

 nothing to pay, except any little gratuity we might 

 choose to give the men who attended on us so ob- 

 sequiously. Hill, indeed, being more acquainted 

 with the customs of the country, had taken upon 

 himself the management of our money matters, so 

 that I only heard this afterwards. In the mean- 

 while, so delightful did we find the situation, and 

 so enjoyable the whole of the arrangements, that 

 we determined to stay here the next day, and try to 

 get a little shooting in the neighbourhood. When 

 the sun got low, I took my hammer and went down 

 into the ravine, while the rest went out shooting. I 

 found all the beds exposed, the total thickness of 

 which was one or two hundred feet, to consist of a 

 soft rock of volcanic sand and ashes pretty firmly 

 compacted together. The grains, which were gene- 

 rally quite globular, varied from the size of peas to 

 the finest sand ; the beds were finely and regularly 

 laminated and regularly stratified, generally about 

 one foot thick, and seemed as if the materials had 

 been deposited under water. Roundish, detached 

 masses of lava or basalt appeared here and there, 

 partially embedded, often one or two feet in diame- 

 ter, but I could not make out how they came there. 

 In the ravine the brook frets over the edges of the 

 beds of volcanic sandstone, but, although so soft, it 



